Burson's Bill Orr Joins Double Forte

SAN FRANCISCO — Burson-Marsteller's West Coast leader Bill Orr has exited the company and joined Double Forte PR as EVP and chief strategy officer.

Two years ago, Burson made a play towards building its West Coast presence by making the San Francisco-based Michael Law from Ogilvy & Mather as US president, reporting into Dave DerHerder (who has since parted ways with the firm). At the same time, Bill Orr joined from Racepoint to expand the firm's footprint in the West anchored in San Francisco.

Since then, the firm has seen several other changes on the West Coast. When DerHerder left in 2014, Law was upped to US CEO. Meanwhile, its San Francisco-based tech lead Sabrina Guttman left for Hewlett-Packard and Rowan Benecke joined from Text100 to lead global tech from New York.

"We have new talent coming into the West Coast and will make a determination on what to do in that office based on need," a spokesperson for Burson told the Holmes Report when asked if Orr would be replaced.

As for Orr, his new role at Double Forte involves creative implementations for Double Forte's clients, which have included Old Navy, CBS Interactive, Support.com, among others. The San Francisco-based firm was founded in 2002.